As trees such as palm trees grow, new fronds sprout at the top and old fronds wither and die. When old fronds die and are cut off, this results in dead frond segments, hereinafter called "collars" or "frond segments", remaining on the trunk presenting an unsightly appearance and an inviting nest for insects and rodents. Dirt and detritus also tend to collect at the collar cluster. In the past, it has been the practice to manually trim the collars close to the trunk from palm tree trunks to enhance the beauty of the tree and prevent the occurrence of the above problems.
Manual removal of collars is slow, tedious work and, due to the heights involved, also presents a safety risk. It has also been known to construct devices for trimming the old fronds from trees. Susil, U.S. Pat. No. 2,727,335, discloses such a device. Such prior devices however are not designed to remove collars from the trunks of trees to provide a smooth trunk and branch segments. There are also other considerations. Trees vary from tree to tree in diameter. An ability to conform to the changing girth of a tree in as simple a device as possible to enhance its reliability and performance is highly desirable.
Quinn, U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,258, discloses a frond trimming device that has such an ability to conform to the changing girth of a tree. The device comprises a frame member positioned around the tree that serves to drive a blade containing carriage member up the tree. As the frame member slowly advances up the tree the carriage member is rotated about the tree causing a pair of horizontally opposed pivoting blades to remove frond segments from the tree. However, this device does not provide the ultimate solution.
The disadvantage in the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,258 lies in its pivoting blade arrangement and its inability to produce a consistent result. Although the pivoting blade arrangement does permit use of the device with a tree of varying girth, it does not work well with trees having a small diameter. Upon the installation of the blade arrangement about a tree of smaller, due to the pivoting arrangement of the blades, there is necessarily less spring tension against each blade to keep it in contact with the tree surface. Additionally, when trimming smaller trees there is more of an opportunity for the device to move out of alignment, causing the tree to occupy a position within the carriage that is not in contact with the blades. In either case, the device ultimately fails to produce a consistently trimmed tree.
It is, therefore, highly desirable to provide an apparatus for trimming collars or frond segments from palm trees that can adjust to the different girth of palm trees. It is also desirable that this apparatus contain a blade arrangement capable of accommodating and producing uniform results on smaller diameter trees.